Make Your Own Corn Dogs

Dip (or corn) dogs are fair favorites. Just ask longtime Tennessee Valley Fair food concessionaire Jim Humphries. He says he thinks "dip dogs" and "corn dogs" are the same thing, so he has put both names on his stands.

Humphries makes the dip dogs fresh at each stand, and his batter is made from scratch using flour and cornmeal. He says some places make them with a packaged mix. He deep-fries them in a pure, all-vegetable oil. "Good oil and good-quality hot dogs" are the secrets, he says.

Barbara Tenney, cookbook author and culinary instructor at Williams-Sonoma, shares a batter recipe for corn dogs she collected at a state fair.

Ingredients:

8 to 10 hot dogs
8 to 10 wooden sticks
vegetable oil for deep-frying

Batter

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp. solid shortening
1 slightly beaten egg
3/4 cup milk

Preparation:

1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in cornmeal. Cut in shortening.

2. Combine egg and milk and add to mixture. To ensure that batter adheres to hot dogs, wipe them off with a paper towel.

3. Insert sticks into hot dogs or use a fork to roll hot dogs in batter until coated. (Another trick is to pour the batter into a tall glass for easy dipping.)

4. Deep-fry in hot vegetable oil at 350 to 375 degrees for 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Note: If batter is too thick, add a little milk.

Use good-quality hot dogs.

Oil can be refrigerated and reused.

Louise Durman writes for The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.